Should laser eye surgery be available on the NHS?

Ricochet J

Ricochet J

Ricochet J

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Consider a pair of glasses that’ll cost the NHS £20 for every patient. Now I’m going to assume the person needs a new pair every year and they start wearing glasses at the age of 15 up until they die, lets say 80 years old (the average is 78.7 years old [Wiki] but I’ve just rounded it up for arguments sake). That’s 65 years of wearing glasses. That’s £1300 spent on glasses (not to mention admin costs, logistics and others), by the NHS on a person who needs them.
Laser eye surgery on the other hand costs around £500 (they all float around this price) with free aftercare.

Would it not be cheaper to give everyone laser eye surgery? Off course it depends on a lot more factors than the ones I’ve just described but I’d like to hear everyone’s view.

(And to get you thinking, the NHS does pay for non life threatening “inconveniences” such as tattoo removal [Times] amongst many others.)
 
I'd be scared of getting laser surgery and having slight short-sightedness turned into blindness either now or some side effects later down the road. Eye-sight is so important

Also do you know the actual average lifetime of a pair of glasses? Because that could make a drastic difference, if you wore glasses for an average of 1.5yrs each from the ages of 15-50 (with kreeeee's assumption they'll be needed anyhow at 50) it only costs £466~ per person. So the laser treatment will loose money overall. And if they wear them longer it gets worse.

Edit: Also, do you know what groups get the money off vouchers for glasses? I've not been offered them personally so would assume it'd be the under 18s in fulltime education/OAPs/benefits people which would further hurt the financial case for laser treatment as you'd effectively only be looking at a few years of glasses for most people.

Another questioin is whether they will need a second course of laser therapy if their eyes change at all where it wouldn't make much difference if they're gettting glasses every year or so.

I'm not saying that I disagree with providing laser eye surgery on the NHS although I think they do need to be certain of the long term effects before they start advising it to people specifically. It is the kind of thing that I would be in favour of providing although apart from severe cases if the NHS doesn't have the money it would be better spent on saving lives and such.
 
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My girlfriend wears glasses and changes them every 18 months. Not because theres anything wrong with them just because she wants a new style.

After all her eye sight is still the same (confirmed by eye tests) so the lenses are still correct, and she looks after her glasses. In fact she still wears one set she bought about 4 years ago.

Laser eye surgery can also cost a lot more then £500.
 
I don't think many people change their glasses once a year, so the initial assumption is flawed. Also, a lot of people wear contacts over glasses, which the NHS don't pay anything towards.
 
Your logic is flawed, you assume that the NHS pays for glasses from the age of 15 to 80; this is only the case if they stay on certain benefits their whole life. For most people the NHS will help pay up to the age of 16 (or 19 in full time education) and then from 60+.

This means the cost per person is significantly less than laser eye surgery.
 
Nope, long term affects havent been discovered from eye surgery yet, and no private optician would really recommend it.
 
both my parents got laser eye done.. they see fine and no problems

most people need glasses as they get older, nothing to do with laser eye surgery.
 
Laser eye surgery has been done for over 25 years without any long term effects having shown up, it's a little paranoid to think there is going to be some devastating effect after then.
 
Doesn't it reduce the eyes resistance to pressure changes or would that only affect you if you're a fighter jet pilot (which you won't be with laser surgery) at extreme Gs?
 
neoboy said:
Doesn't it reduce the eyes resistance to pressure changes or would that only affect you if you're a fighter jet pilot (which you won't be with laser surgery) at extreme Gs?
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never heard that before, is it just rapid changes or any change from normal?
 
Tefal said:
never heard that before, is it just rapid changes or any change from normal?
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I just remember reading a thread over at mp.net about eye surgery and army policy on it and apparently laser eye surgery thins your cornea so if you were a fighter jet pilot at high Gs your eyes can actually explode! Not really sure how much truth is in that though, however, NHS website says this:

Laser eye surgery usually involves cutting a flap in the cornea and then reshaping it using a laser, before replacing the flap.
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So I suppose there is microscopic scar on your eye which may have effect on its integrity but only at very extreme changes of pressure. Still I ain't no doctor so don't take my word for it :p
 
My dad had it done about 6 years ago and he thinks it's the best thing he's ever done. I'll be getting mine done this year hopefully.
 
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